Page 4 of Lorcan

Bloody wench knows me too well. I keyed it in and the doors closed, whooshing me up to the top floor. I hated elevators, more than anything. My fear would be to get caught in one and then go flying down to the ground and burning up in an inferno.

Finally, I could breathe again when the doors opened to a small foyer area with a door. I rapped my knuckles against it. Keeva opened the door within seconds and smiled up at me.

“Thank you for coming.”

She stood to the side of the door and let me in. Her apartment was pure red and white. Comic pop artwork covered her walls adding that pop of colour in her apartment to take away from the newness of it all.

“You’ve done a lot with it.”

“Yeah, you know me, have to have me some colour,” she chuckled. “Listen, I know you’re a busy man so I don’t want to waste your time.”

“It’s fine, Kee. Why’d you need me here?”

I hated to be so abrupt with her, she was an absolute godsend. I never had to deal with anything with her. In fact, I didn’t even know if she knew about the studio burning up.

“I suppose by now you’ve seen the studio,” she said, almost taking the thought from my head.

“How did you know?”

“So, I have to admit something to you, Lor.”

“If you burned that fucking place down-”

“Do you think I’d ever do that to you?” she asked, horrified I would even think of it. Personally, I couldn’t believe I’d thought about it either.

“Tell me quick,” I said to her. “I’ve had a day no one would ask for and my patience is already on thin ice.”

“When is it ever on thick ice?” Keeva chuckled. She’d never been wary of my moods like everyone else was.

“Look, I was doing someone a favour and now I need to head to Belfast for a couple of days.”

“Spit it the fuck out, Kee.”

“One of my employees was staying at the studio. Obviously, she escaped the inferno but all of her things were destroyed, including her cards and money. She needs somewhere to stay and honestly, this place isn’t going to be it. You know who comes by every now and then.”

This place was used for some of the kinkiest of sex parties I’d ever heard about, and I knew Keeva was into some serious shit.

“We have a sex club for that, Kee.”

“I don’t really have time to quibble over this, Lor. Please, you have enough rooms in that big ol’ manor of yours to house one woman.”

“She one of the stars? Why was she staying at the studio?”

“No, she works for us answering phones and filing,” Keeva said. “Look, the kid’s had it rough. She obviously ran away from whatever her situation is and she’s hiding out in Galway. I took pity on her.”

That wasn’t like Keeva. She was as hard as they come. There must be something about thiskid.

“Fine, I’ll take her to the estate and she can stay for a couple of days. Walter will see to it that she gets everything she needs.”

“Great,” Keeva said with a beaming smile. “I’ll go get her.”

When Keeva returned, I couldn’t take my eyes off the woman with her. She was nokid, she was a grown ass woman and from what I could tell, a fucking gorgeous one.

“Lorcan, this is Ava,” she said. “Ava, Lor will take good care of you. Once I’m back, we’ll find you somewhere a little more permanent, yeah?”

“Thanks, Keeva.”

She smiled up at me and I felt something shift in my chest. I could see her sweet smile was genuine but there was something in her eyes, something dark. She’d seen some serious shit and it hurt me to think of this sweet thing being hurt by anyone and needing to run away.

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